Samantha van Gysen is an up and coming new child star violinist living in central Durban. Aged 11, she has just won the National Eistedfodd playing the violin.

She will be featured in Super Babes, Nuts4Music’s concert at The Catalina Theatre later in the year, along with several other highly talented young musicians.

Samantha attends Crawford Preparatory Durban (Grade 5), learns violin with Enzo Lo Castro and has participated in Master Classes with Darragh Morgan. Andrew Warburton is her accompanist for performances in Durban and Ilse Myburg in Johannesburg.

Her steady climb up the ladder of success is notable and she was the youngest child ever to be accepted by the Franschhoek Mountain Chamber Music Workshop in 2004. She was given special acceptance to play at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in July 2005 – the usual minimum age level is 12.

In May 2005, she walked away with first prize at the Di Konokono Arts and Culture Festival and National Eisteddfod Academy (NEA) finals at the Pro Musica Theatre in Gauteng where she received R5,000 for her efforts. She was the overall winner from finalists whose ages ranged between six and 18.